Finnwatch, a Finnish-based non-governmental organisation focused on global corporate responsibility, has published a new report that there are still problems at the Siam Sempermed medical glove factory in Thailand.
The report, based on interviews with workers at the factory, says that the factory keeps workers' travel documents, sets mandatory production targets and deducts large documentation fees from the salaries of the migrant workers.
Finnwatch executive director Sonja Vartiala said that some of the migrant workers at the factory have found conditions there "so unsatisfactory that they have fled without their documents."
The medical gloves made at the Siam Sempermed factory are marketed in Finland by the company OneMed and are used in hospitals across Finland.
In its report Finnwatch says that OneMed has actively audited the factory and demanded action from the factory’s Austrian co-owner. However, Vartiala says those audits have not reached the root causes of the problems.
Public procurement "not sustainable"
Vartiala criticised the acquisition process in Finland overall.
"We should pay much more attention in to the sustainability of public procurement decisions in Finland" Vartiala said.
"In Finland we like to make consumers feel guilty over the sustainability of various products and at the same time we forget about the sustainability of purchases made with billions of tax payer money, she said.
"Finland must make the social clause in the EU public procurement directives binding so that in the future, human rights are taken into account when making public procurement decisions. This would also increase the competitiveness of Finnish production companies," Vartiala said.
Finnwatch acknowledged that some of the earlier-reported problems at the factory have been rectified, Finnwatch.
A report published in the spring of 2014 said that the factory was not paying legally mandated minimum wages to workers in the factory's glove packing department and is forcing workers to work excessive amounts of overtime.
It also said that workers received no pay slips and were unaware of their work terms. Workers also reported that time off for annual and national holidays were often prohibited.